


Loneliest Creatures in the Universe

by ChromeHoplite, HARUBI



Category: Doctor Who, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Child Eren Yeager, Companion Eren, Crossover, Eren grows up fast, Flirting, Fluff, Levi is kind of like the 11th doctor but just cooler, M/M, No filter Levi Ackerman, Sonic Screwdriver misuse, Swearing, TARDIS - Freeform, TARDIS malfunctions, Time Lord Levi, Titanthropes, Weeping Angels - Freeform, cravat instead of bowtie, so much awkward flirting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-05 12:14:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11577879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChromeHoplite/pseuds/ChromeHoplite, https://archiveofourown.org/users/HARUBI/pseuds/HARUBI
Summary: "Their greatest asset is their greatest curse. They can never be seen. Loneliest creatures in the Universe. And I'm sorry. I am very, very sorry. It's up to you now."- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"What happens when the threat you face within the walls is as dangerous as the one that waits for you just outside?Newly regenerated Time Lord Levi's TARDIS crashes somewhere in Shiganshina after having narrowly escaped the Weeping Angels. The world in which Eren Jaeger grew up already knows far too many dangers in the form of Titans, is it able to cope with the additional threat that might have followed a big blue box?





	1. *Vworp, Vworp*

Eren had only meant to take a short nap while Mikasa finished collecting the sticks for his mom, but by the time his eyes fluttered open, the sun had long passed its zenith and a light drizzle hung in the air, making everything feel damp and clammy. His clothes were neither wet nor dry, just soggy and uncomfortable. He stretched his arms overhead, nearly unseating himself from the large branch on which he’d settled to snooze, then yawned wide and noisily, lifting his face to the moist dusky air, rubbing sleep from his eyes with small, soft fists before climbing back down. 

He began walking the pine needle-littered trail that lead home, his step less than casual as the sun disappeared behind the large wall that surrounded the village, casting large sinister shadows on nearby trees, bushes and animals. And though Eren Jaeger was rumoured to be fearless, plucky and maybe even a little reckless to the point of stupidity, the reputation itself wasn’t enough to stop his ten-year-old heart from racing erratically when he suddenly thought he was being chased by said shadows.

He picked up the pace and hugged his torso a little tighter as the evening’s coolness started to raise goose pimples on his flesh, when something streaked overhead, a _Vworp, Vworp_ sound echoing as it did before whatever it was crash some fifty feet off the path to Eren’s left. 

A mischievous smile parted his lips and he took off at a run, stumbling and careening in his haste, exhilarated by the possibilities of what he’d find; what was it Armin had called them? Those things from space… meat-eaters? Meaty-orr? Meteor?! That was it! The rocks that fell from the sky. But rocks didn’t make _Vworp, Vworp_ sounds, and they weren’t blue, were they? Maybe rocks from space were blue… a bright unforgettable blue…

A bright, TARDIS blue, though Levi supposed there wasn’t much of it left to see anymore, given all the smoke and fire in the mainframe. “Please, baby, I know you’re mad at me,” he yelled over the deafening roar of angry sputtering engines, climbing back out from under the console frame, “I’m sorry I threw a wrench at you!”

Circular orbs flashed angrily back at him, screeching as something blew up in another room. Levi hoped it wasn’t his custodial closet. “Oh, come on! You can’t blame me for being pissed off! I’m a fucking child with these short limbs!”

If it wasn’t for those fucking Angels, he wouldn’t have even needed to regenerate. He really should have listened and stayed away when that one asshole with the bow tie and fez warned him about them. Then he wouldn’t have had to give up his completely long limbed and adequate body for a much shorter one that couldn’t even reach the damn levers. Ten minutes into his new form, and he already hated it. At least his hair wasn’t frizzy this time.

A sudden burst of flames blew up in the mainframe a little too close for comfort, and Levi stumbled backwards towards the front door, covering his face from the heat.

“Please, darling, don’t hurt yourself!” A wrench whizzed by his ear, and that was his cue to leave, ducking his head just in case his piece of shit decided to chuck something else at him.

“For fuck’s sake, sweetcakes,” He lamented, clutching at the blue door frame of the soot-stained blue police box, squinting into his fiery mainframe, “Forgive me?” Levi was grateful his new and improved body came with faster reflexes because he had only a split second to pull away his fingers before the doors shut in his face. “Oh, honeypie,” Levi tried to wrap his arms around his TARDIS, just barely reaching to grip the corners with his fingers, “You’re burning up, you piece of shit.”

Eren skidded to stop at the sight that met him; a boy, no taller than he was, his clothes much too large for him, the sleeves pushed back to barely reveal small, slender fingers that were petting a blue box that had, by the looks of it, crashed and dug itself into the earth. 

Dark, winding smoke filtered outside through a door that read “Police Public Call Box”, as flames licked at the bottom, also trying to find a way out. He approached, uncaring that his mother had constantly warned him not to talk to strangers when he heard a deep, husky voice, pleading.

“Who are you talking to?” Eren asked looking around to be sure he hadn’t missed anyone else, but then panicked, “Is there someone _in there_? Is it your mummy?” He charged for the door, pushing the boy aside and knocking him over as Eren tried futilely to wrench the door open with both hands.

“We have to rescue whoever is in there! Yeeeow! That hurts!!!” He cursed as he withdrew his fingers, the tips scorched and pulsing in agony. 

“Hey!” Levi jumped up and yanked back the stranger by his arms angrily, “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to touch other people’s stuff?”

The touch of skin sent jolts of electricity through his still-sensitive palms, and Levi violently shuddered. Golden sparks wafted off of his arm, its tendrils curling and reaching out until it found the boy’s blistering fingertips. With an ambient glow, his regeneration energy healed the wound instantly, soaking into the boy’s sun-kissed skin.

“Don’t touch her. She’s delicate.” As if in response, the blue box screeched and jerked, digging itself a little more into the earth. “Don’t be angry, dear,” Levi cooed back to the box, leaning his forehead on its door, “He’s just a stupid boy, he didn’t know better.”

Eren stared at his hands, astonished; his brain was having a difficult time processing everything he was seeing. “I’m not _stupid_!” he spluttered, “You’re stupid. You’re the one talking to a _box_ that _you_ probably crashed!” 

“Shut up, brat! She’s not a box, and I didn’t crash her! She’s a very sensitive soul, and you just hurt her feelings!” Levi curled in closer to his beloved, stroking her frames to calm her down as she continued to wheeze and set nearby twigs on fire. “Don’t listen to him,” he murmured, trailing his hands lower down her body, “He doesn’t see how perfect you are. Don’t cry, beautiful.”

Eren’s eyes widened when he took in the odd boy’s actions. No, not a boy. A man. A very small man. The way he touched the box, whispered and cooed to it reminded him of the couples he happened upon in the alleyways at night on his way home from Armin’s. “Um, do you need time alone with your uh...whatever it is?” he asked blushing furiously. 

Levi’s beloved smelled so smoky, and she was so warm against his body… So hot against his chest, like she was on fire. Which she was. He would have liked nothing more than to make love to her right here and now, but even he had standards. His darling was in dire need of a bath first.

“Oh, fuck,” Levi had to leap away as flames rose up higher and angrier through the crevice under the door. He patted down the baggy trousers that had caught on fire, barely feeling any of the burns on his legs. He was still in the middle of his regeneration, so he was near invincible, blisters healing as soon as they formed. The slacks were so long, though, and Levi ripped off the scorched remnants of his pants dangling just above his knees. The stranger who had discovered him was still standing there, blushing as he inched away back towards the trees.

“It’s fine. I’ll deal with it later,” Levi sighed, “she’ll understand. Why are you here, anyways? I didn’t call you.”

“Uh, no, not exactly; but if I saw it coming down from the sky, others definitely did too. You might want to move this hunk of junk if you don’t want anyone to find it,” he said surveying the damage it had caused. He bent down and picked up a metal sheet of paper that had fallen from the blue _thing that wasn’t a box_ and examined it, re-read it twice, before he handed it to the raven-haired man. “Who are you anyhow? What’s a tele...telephone?” 

Levi paused in the middle of carefully re-attaching his beloved’s sign, staring at the ignorant boy. “‘What’s a telephone’? You’ve gotta be kidding. And I guess you’re going to tell me there’s no wi-fi here, too? No, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.” This couldn’t be right. Levi was sure he’d followed the signal from the Weeping Angels’ spacecraft all the way here… At least up until he’d blown up his own engines along the way. Last he saw, there was a whole grid of advanced technology in this region somewhere, and he needed to find out what the Angels were building, and where. 

The boy was right, though. The crash had knocked down a whole trail of trees, and the smoke was definitely attracting attention. And most importantly, his beloved was hurt and scared. He needed to find a good shelter for her. “Hey kid, where’s your house?” 

Eren looked over his shoulder squinting in the dark; it was properly night now and a fog settled itself on the ground, rising to his knees. _Great! Just great!_ he thought kicking a pebble as he let out a groan and smacked his forehead; he’d have a hell of a time finding his way back and no amount of explaining would dull his mother’s hysterics or lessen his father’s glare. And Mikasa… Oh, Mikasa would have his ass for this. “It’s over that way,” he said pointing to where he’d come from, “I think. It’s hard to tell in the dark...” 

He could make out the man’s features a bit better by the flames that emanated from within the not-a-box, and while he looked stern, there was a softness, something old and wise in the set of his stormy-silver eyes. Even if this man was a stranger, Eren knew he’d probably fare better trying to make his way through the thick forest at night with him than on his own, and his mother would be less likely to beat him within an inch of his life if they had company. “And my dad’s a doctor” he added, feigning helpfulness, “if you crashed your… thing, you might want someone to look at you. Come on…” He said grabbing a handful of the long sleeve and pulling it along. 

Levi wrenched his sleeve away from the small hand. “And leave my poor baby here unprotected and hurt? I’m not gonna just abandon her like that.”

Pushing the blue door open, Levi cautiously ducked his head in. “Have you calmed down, honey? Go take a shower now. I’ll be going out for just a bit. Don’t be angry!” The sprinklers in the ceiling activated, dousing everything inside with water. He probably should have made those automatic, but it never occurred to him that he’d ever need it. Levi fumbled around his loose garments until he found his pocket, pulling out a thin cylindrical gadget with a blue tip. Pointing it towards the main console, he patted the blue door frame affectionately. “And stay safe!”

With a click, Levi’s sonic screwdriver whirred as it lit up, remotely cranking the handlebars to activate the invisibility shield, before shutting the door to a now-invisible police box. He turned back around smugly to face the ogling boy, dropping his screwdriver back into his large shirt pocket. “There. Now I’ve abandoned her safely. Let’s go!”

“Woah!” Eren exclaimed, stretching the word as if it had five syllables. “How did you get that tiny little blue fire in that tool?! That’s amazing! Can I see it? Can I _hold_ it?” He bounded on the tips of his toes walking backwards towards the path so he could face the little man properly. His hand reached towards the pocket it had been tucked in when abruptly it was swatted away. He furrowed his brows, bright green eyes shifting away from the stranger as he fell in step with him on the path. 

“Hands to yourself, brat.” It wasn’t like he didn’t want to show it to the kid. In fact, he was more than proud of his screwdriver, the ultimate symbol of a TARDIS bond, their special engagement ring of sorts. But it was also extremely dangerous, and he couldn’t risk the kid shooting his own foot off, or worse.

Pulling the silver pen back out of his pocket, Levi pointed it around the path, clicking it to a low sonic whir. The dim light of the screwdriver lit up their surroundings a bit, showing a small path the boy must have used. “Super cool though, right? It does all sorts of amazing stuff, but I can’t show you because all we have here are some big ass trees, and this shit does _not_ work on wood.” He really needed a wood function on this.

Eren bewildered at the small tool, its technology was far beyond anything hed ever seen in Shiganshina. He watched as it illuminated their surroundings and wondered if the tool could be used as a weapon also. Maybe it could be used on titans? Maybe this was the solution to being able to get out from the cage-like walls that surrounded humanity. As far as he knew, titans weren't made of wood. He just needed to get his hands on it.

“You're not from around here are you? What's your name anyway?” he asked trying to come up with a plan.

“I’m Levi, and just passing through your neighborhood.” Clicking through a few more functions on the screwdriver, he turned on a detection radar for any alien technology that might be nearby. If the Angels were building something secret, they might have hidden it in this forest somewhere. The gigantic trees were perfect for hiding stuff. Like his TARDIS. Levi hoped she wasn’t feeling scared all alone.

They walked in relative silence a bit longer, listening to the routine beep of the screwdriver, following a path that Levi wasn’t even sure it _was_ a path. It wasn’t like GPS would have helped, either. He didn’t even know where he was, but they definitely would not have wi-fi here.

Suddenly, the screwdriver began to beep more erratically, and the readings told him it was coming somewhere 75 degrees to the right of the direction he’d been heading. There _was_ alien technology here, after all! Grinning to himself, Levi veered to the right and quickened his pace, following the signal right out of the forest and straight into a wooden wall.

“Wait! Where are you going?! My house his _this way_!” Eren called after the man Levi as he took off at a run. Not to be bested by some stranger and almost taking it as a personal challenge, the tan-skinned boy chased the stranger, trying to catch up with him, but he was _fast_! He tripped over his own damned feet twice, slipped on wet moss and narrowly missed a tree only to stumble headlong into Levi when he stopped abruptly. For such a small man, he was solid. Eren remembered Armin saying something about an unstoppable force and an immovable object, but he couldn’t recall what the point of it was, regardless, he found himself on his bottom staring at Levi who was staring at a wall. “Hey! What gives… you said it didn’t work with wood. Why would it make all that racket and stuff for this wall?” 

“It’s not the wall,” Levi responded almost distractedly, scanning the corners of the wall with the screwdriver, “It’s what’s behind the wall that’s alien technology. Now where’s the door…”  
In his experience, the best way to deal with anything wooden was a good and hard kick to wherever his leg would reach. His new legs were a bit too short and thin for his liking, but would have to do for now. So he kicked the wall.

Eren winced the moment he saw Levi bring his leg up, knew exactly what he was going to do and before he could tell Levi that this was likely not a hollowed building, but a solid target the size of a cabin for 3DM gear practice, he heard the unmistakable snap of bone and cartilage breaking and saw the man fall to his knees in a cacophony of vulgarity. 

“What kind of a fucking wood is _that_???” Levi gasped, grimacing at the sight of his leg bent up in an absolutely abnormal angle. He was still regenerating, he could feel the regeneration energy buzzing in his veins, but they wouldn’t be able to heal his leg while the bones were still misaligned. And, fuck, he was not doing it himself this time. The last time he thought he could do it, he had a limp for the rest of that regeneration cycle… He was no _doctor_ , that was certain. “Shit,” He groaned once more, trying to push himself up without success.

Eren got to his feet to give the stranger some moments to compose himself and walked the perimeter of the target trying to figure out what it was Levi had broken his leg for. When he could find nothing, he jumped a few times until his hands grasped the roof and he pulled himself up. At the centre, where it would have been impossible for them to see from the ground, was a leather band wrapped around a cylindrical stone piece, much like a watch, except that it wasn't a watch because the face didn't tell time; rather it looked like a massive compass. 

He knew (due to all his impromptu astronomy lessons with Armin) that he was facing the North Star at that very moment, yet the needle was clearly directing him back the way from which they had come. It must be broken. 

He jumped down from the target most ungracefully, only to find himself on his ass again, but next to Levi who sat there gritting his teeth, trying to pretend his leg didn't hurt as bad as it did. If Eren strained his ears, he could make out a steady stream of words from a different language he didn't know, but would be willing to bet were swears just by the sheer venom with which they were intonated. 

“Was this what you were looking for?” he said handing the item to Levi, looking at him with bright eager green eyes, hoping to be rewarded by the man's praise. 

Levi stared at the item in Eren’s hands. That was clearly an amputated stone arm; all but the thumb had broken off, but it was definitely an arm. What had to have happened for a Weeping Angel to have broken their arm like that? From what he knew about them, they weren’t so easily broken… Whatever had done the damage had to have been very powerful and extremely dangerous.

The TARDIS Compass on the arm was clearly what his screwdriver had tracked. This wasn’t a good sign at all. If the Angels had this compass, then they were clearly waiting for him… or for a Time Lord of some sort, at the very least. And the needle was pointing right at his precious hiding in the forest. She was safe for now, the Angels’ compass now in his possession, but he had to move her soon. First, however, he needed to get his damned leg fixed.

“Not bad, kid. Get the compass off the arm first, and let’s go. You said your dad was a doctor?” Grabbing Eren by his shoulders, Levi painfully hoisted himself up, giving the boy almost no time to brace himself. Staring at his foot pointing the wrong direction was making him want to vomit, and he wasn’t going to do that without a change of clothes in hand.

“Uh...Yeah, I did mention that...” Eren threw one of Levi’s arms over his shoulder and his knees buckled somewhat under the man’s weight. How was someone so small, so heavy? 

It took them at least ten minutes to get back on the path they’d abandoned when Levi had taken off at a run and during that time, Eren tried to find the words to explain about his father to the injured man. He knew what he had to tell Levi next wasn’t going to be well-received because he’d implied that his father was _at_ home when he’d mentioned him before, but he just desperately wanted to befriend the older man, he was just so interesting, something new to break the monotony of Eren's regimented routine life. He settled on getting the truth out as quickly as possible, mumbling and blending some of the words as he did, “But he left this morning to go out of town, so I’ll fix it for you, I’ve been with him on housecalls loads of times! He’s got all the stuff we’ll need in his office.”

“ _You’ll_ be fixing me??? I’m so fucked for this regeneration…” He was hopping on his way to letting a kid operate on him, and he doubted that was going to end up well. If he was lucky, maybe he’d trigger a second regeneration and be given a whole new body. But that was such a waste of a life, and Levi was finally getting used to viewing the world from a lower vantage point. Eren was a doctor’s kid, though, so maybe he was a medical genius in hiding. He really hoped the boy had some secret talent.

As though sensing his uneasiness, Eren continued to prattle on about his experiences helping his father with stitching up wounds and cutting out tumors as they finally reached a main road. He’d done all sorts of things, apparently. By the time they reached the boy’s home, a simple stone cottage near the edge of town, Levi had been persuaded that the boy was more than adept at fixing broken legs. He definitely sounded like he knew what to do. The front door swung open before the kid could reach for the handle, and they came face to face with an angry pair of eyes.

“M-Mom… I - I can explain…” Eren stuttered and stammered, keeping his eyes downcast unable to meet the brilliant glow of his mother’s golden piercing stare.

Carla spared only a moment to ascertain her son’s safety when her glare shifted to the individual he was helping to support. She didn’t recognize him, so he most definitely wasn’t from Shiganshina, that much was obvious; regardless, he looked ridiculous in his too big clothes, soot-stained face, leaning heavily on her ten year old son. “You had better explain Eren Grisha Jaeger!” she said pinching his ear and dragging him into their home before she made a spectacle of herself outside. It might be late and dark, but their neighbours were nosy. “Start now!” 

Eren grit his teeth, wanting to act tough for the stranger and bit back the string of “ow, ow, ow…” that found itself at the tip of his tongue. “You… You see Mom… it’s… it’s like this...” His brain went blank. What _was_ it like? He couldn’t very well admit to having slacked off, _again_ , then followed something falling from the sky. What if his mother didn’t let him see Levi again? She’d already banned him from watching the Survey Corps come home from their missions, afraid it might, oh what had she told his father, oh yes, _encourage the boy to want to join_. Damn it, why hadn’t he taken the time on their walk home to come up with a decent story, or to at least corroborate one with Levi, so that if he decided to stretch the truth a _wee_ bit, he wouldn’t get caught. 

“It’s like this, Ma’am,” Levi grunted, trying not to hop and jostle his leg as he pulled out his psychic paper and flashed it to her before peeking at it himself. ‘Corporal Levi, Survey Corps’ it said. Huh. He didn’t know what the Survey Corps was, but it must have been something great, because Eren’s mother gasped, her eyes glistening with something akin to sympathy and respect. Then she turned back to her son, her expression much darker than it had been, before turning back to him with a suspiciously sweet smile. Levi had the bad feeling that he may have made things worse somehow.

“You’re injured, Corporal.” It was not a question, but a mere observation. When the man nodded weakly as though trying to keep his composure, she moved aside to admit them into the Jaeger home instructing Eren to bring him to his father’s small office tucked away in the southernmost corner of the house. Once her son had helped the corporal onto the examining table, she told him to fetch his sister; they would need her help. 

Her eyes lingered on her son as he left the room hesitantly, then turned her attention to the short man who seemed much too young for his rank. “Corporal, my son, Eren… He’s got a reputation for being… how do I put this delicately,” her brows furrowed and shit bit her lip, “he’s a shit disturber. And he won’t tell me the truth, so I’m asking you, as the adult in this situation… is he responsible in any way, shape or form for your current state?”

“Your son was there when I had my, er, fall. And he was more than generous to offer me some medical assistance.” Levi thanked that this regeneration cycle had gifted him with a low and commanding voice that made it sound like he was definitely some important person. The woman seemed pleased with his answer, even though her scrutinizing eyes seemed to know there was something he was hiding. In some respects, she was just like his own mother who’d always known that he wasn’t being truthful, even when he wasn’t really lying. There was definitely some magical mystical abilities that only mothers gained, no matter what civilization or species. He’d have to try being a mother in his next regeneration cycle as a woman to find out.

The door swung open again and Eren skidded back into the room, looking just slightly panicked, with a girl following closely behind. The girl had much darker hair than the he did, and much paler skin, as well as facial features that didn’t seem at all similar to the bright eyes shared by Eren and his mother or the tan freckles peppering their skin. She must look more like the father, then.

“This guy’s the Corporal?” She narrowed her eyes at Levi, “What kind of a corporal can’t even land properly? And where’s the rest of your team?”

“That’s classified,” Levi shot back, glaring straight back. It’s only been an hour since he’d been reborn, he was not above immature fights with children yet. The girl huffed, obviously not satisfied with the answer, but didn’t retort back, pouting into her red scarf instead.

“Geeze Mikasa, cut him some slack… Just look at his foot,” Eren chided her, embarrassed by her usual dismissiveness of strangers. But now that she brought it up, what Levi had told him didn’t really make sense. He might not be part of the Survey Corps himself or be privy to very important information, but he’d never seen one of those boxes-that-wasn’t-a-box before, and unless Levi’s whole team had been devoured by titans, where were the rest of them? He didn’t air his suspicions though, he would keep Levi’s secrets and conceal the truth with him if it meant he could keep him near. 

“Do you remember what you need to do, Eren?” Carla asked her son in a voice that was louder than her regular soft tone to snap him out of whatever daydreams he was having looking at the man on the examining table. The admiration was written plainly on his face, but behind the depths of his jade-lapis eyes danced wonder, interest and curiosity; in short, a perfect blend to fuel her son’s impulsivity. She wasn’t happy that he seemed so enthralled with the man; the last thing he needed was another reason to go outside the walls to get himself killed. 

Eren gave a curt nod and pushed his sleeves up to his elbows without a word. He gathered two towels from the corner shelf and put one at the head of the examining table and motioned for Levi to lay down. He was glad to be working in silence for once, not at all wanting to fill the silence with chatter, afraid he would embarrass himself when all he desperately wanted was to impress Levi. “Here, you’ll need to bite down on this,” he instructed, nodding to his sister and his mother and they immediately threw themselves over the small man’s chest as he gave himself less than five seconds to do what his father called a _fracture reduction_ before he was sure Levi would be struggling and cursing up a storm. He winced as he grasped the foot by the heel and the toes and gave a mighty twist, the sickening crunch of bone and a muffled scream fought for auditory superiority. “Shh… it’s done… it’s done…” he said as the women took their weight off Levi’s chest and arms, applying a splint to the foot to keep it in its proper position.

Levi was pretty sure the pain would trigger another regeneration, he thought as he blinked away the stars flooding his vision. It had to have. That was the most painful thing he’d ever had to do and, fuck, didn’t this shitty place have any anesthetics?

“Stop crying like a baby,” The little girl snapped at him, keeping a hold on his shoulder as the older woman went to help Eren with something.

“I am _not_ crying like a baby!” Levi snapped back, wiping his eyes just in case he actually was. He opened his damp eyes once more just as Carla moved away again, holding two wooden planks around his leg as Eren began to bandage it. “That’s not necessary,” Levi said to him, trying to get up and stop him as he felt the familiar buzz under his skin, but the little girl’s grip on his shoulder was strong. “Seriously, that’s not-” He grit his teeth and tried not to scream as he felt his regeneration energy surge through his veins rapidly, rushing downwards, lower and lower, until it reached his broken leg, now properly realigned. Levi couldn’t even spare the energy to tell them to move back as the golden glow of his regeneration expanded and wrapped itself around his leg before bursting with a painful explosion, violently rattling the very table he was on top of. Within a few moments, there was no more pain, and Levi could feel his toes again, though his head still felt a little bit woozy. Hopping off the table with renewed enthusiasm for the task at hand, he pushed his hair back from his eyes and headed towards the nearest door.

“Right,” Levi patted a hand over his chest, making sure his screwdriver was still there, “ I’m gonna need new clothes first before we follow the trail again, and… Why is everyone on the floor?”

“So we can look at you at eye level,” Mikasa snarled as she helped Eren to his feet, having only taken momentary notice of the mounting golden light before throwing herself on top of her brother to shield him from harm.

Eren shot Mikasa a warning look as she got off him and gave him a hand up; whoever Levi _really_ was, he wasn’t to be trifled with. Overactive imagination or not, he _knew_ he wasn’t the only one to have seen the energy that surged out of the man and was now on his feet like his leg had never been broken in the first place.

Carla rose to her feet a little unsteadily, wiping her face with her apron as she eyed the man suspiciously. It was settled in her mind; whoever he was, he had not been honest about his identity. He was powerful, though he didn’t seem malicious. He healed at a rate only known to titans, and yet, he seemed a kind enough man. Still, the unknown made her uncomfortable, which is why she’d shied away from helping her husband in his basement or going on house calls with him the way Eren did. It was better if he left before her son became more attached, before Eren started in with his questions about the outside world and rambled about his half-cocked ideals about freedom and travel. “My husband is a rather taller man, so I’m doubtful his clothes would fit you, but I’m sure Eren has _something_.” She picked up some of the books and trinkets that had fallen along with her and her children as she tried to bury her increasing panic, “Eren, why don’t you bring out a pair of pants and a shirt to the _corporal_ ,” and then turning to Levi, “Then I’ll have to ask you to leave, please.” 

Eren gaped, taken aback by his mother’s sudden rudeness, “But mom-” 

“No, Eren. I’m sure the Corporal has business to attend to, a trail to follow, he said…”

“Yes, I’m a busy man,” Levi dazedly said, peeking out the window and sniffing his shirt distastefully. How had he survived his last regeneration wearing such ugly shirts? And it smelled like stuff he didn’t even want to describe. The boy pouted at him, trying to hold his ground, but Levi said nothing more. He had never intended to stay longer than necessary, anyways, and they kid was safer with his mother than a time traveling alien. Especially in a town screaming danger like this.

“Come on,” Mikasa pulled on Eren’s arm forcefully, “Let’s go.”She didn’t want to stay one more second in the room with a freak, especially one who could be a Titan for all she knew. And she knew Eren found him interesting. He _glowed_ , for heaven’s sake. That wasn’t normal. Her brother had a horrible tendency to be attracted to dangerous things like that, all the not-normal stuff. He followed suspicious animal trails in the forest all the time, and more often than not, he was running after the flying soldiers as they practiced with their gears in the trees whenever he caught sight of them. He was practically running to his death. Eren’s protests were muffled as she pushed him out of the room and slammed the door behind herself.

That jolt of pain on his leg was exactly what Levi had needed to get his brain rebooted again, and now he found that he could focus on his surroundings with much more clarity than before. And there was something wrong with this town, he could feel it. Ignoring the fearful looks of Eren’s mother, Levi pulled out his screwdriver to turn on the temporal disturbance detector again, pointing it around the room. As he had expected, it was beeping wildly and erratically, no matter which direction he pointed it. It wasn’t the TARDIS Compass his detector had been warning him about before he’d foolishly broken his leg; it was this whole town.

“You’re in danger, Ma’am,” Levi told the woman watching him, “This whole town is in danger.”

Where were the Angels, though? The spiking levels of temporal disturbance meant they had to have built themselves a huge nest here, but Levi couldn’t remember seeing any of them on his way here. There were only the small altars with veiled figures he’d seen scattered around town, like the one in the backyard outside the window, made for the local saints of protection and war heroes who could no longer return home, but no Angels.

A good lot of help this stranger was. Of course they were all in trouble! Trapped, like cattle, waiting to be feasted on should something happen to the walls that were built to protect them some hundred years ago. She felt her nostrils flare as she rounded on him, stood a good head taller than him and shepherded him from her husband’s small office and towards the front of their home, voice low through clenched teeth as she spoke, “And what would you like us to do about it? We can’t exactly go outside the walls, can we? Not with those damned titans everywhere just waiting to eat us.” In the kitchen, she spread a napkin and loaded it with a day old loaf of bread, some dried meat and berries and a small container of cream then bundled it together with a safety pin. She might want him gone, but her etiquette was far too ingrained to allow her let him leave without having offered him some kind of sustenance. “And given that you’re a Corporal for the Survey Corps, I thought you’d have a solid grasp on that…” 

“Titans?” Levi asked, watching the woman fuss around the kitchen heatedly. None of these ‘titans’ existed, not anymore. The Titanthropes went extinct on the planet Earth millennia ago, larger and more intelligent relatives of their Neanderthal cousins. They would have kept on surviving, had they not developed a penchant for raw meat. As it were, their cannibalistic tendencies led to violent wars, and ultimately their own demise, paving a smooth path for the rise of Cro-Magnons. The last Titanthrope had, in fact, been destroyed by a fellow time lord, according to historical accounts. There was no way they could still be alive.

“Titans are the last of your worries,” Levi assured her, “There are far worse dangers inside your town.” He was pretty sure the Angels would not be attacking him, not just yet, wherever they were. If they had intended to really kill him, they’d have done it back on the planet Obsidian. He’d been on his last battery for his plasma lighter, and he’d have been completely vulnerable afterwards. But they’d run away instead, leaving an obvious trail as they retreated. The Angels had led him here on purpose. And they were waiting. For what, he didn’t know. He had the bad feeling that his TARDIS was their target.

“If you care for the safety of your children, I’d advise you to leave as soon as possible.”  
Just as the woman whirled angrily around with her bundle and opened her lips to protest again, Eren walked back into the room with his surly sister, fresh new clothes in his hands. Levi felt his two hearts skip a beat at the sight. Finally, he could be clean and proper again. He was tired of looking like a beggar. He quickly grabbed the back of his ragged shirt and pulled it off in one swoosh and dropped his pants to his ankles, reaching for the cleaner ones eagerly. Oh, his abdominal muscles were much more toned in this regeneration, he noticed, running his fingers over them for the first time.

Eren swallowed audibly and received a sharp jab in the ribs by his sister. Normally, he would have returned the favour, or would have at least shouted something obscene back, but he couldn’t help but stare at the dips and bulges that made up Levi’s impressive abdomen. He hugged his own torso somewhat self-consciously, wondering if he would ever develop a similar physique so that he could be an asset to the the Survey Corps. 

Noticing her son’s preoccupation with the stranger, Carla cleared her voice and held out her bundle of food, “It’s not much, but it ought to tide you over until you get back to your headquarters.” It was the most subtle hint she could give that she wanted him gone, without being outright rude. “Say goodbye Eren, Mikasa.”

As expected, his sister gave a cursory nod but Eren rushed to Levi’s side and called on all the courage he had to defy his mother, “I think… I think I should help him find the headquar-”

“Out of the question. You need your sleep, you’ve been out all night,” Carla said with a tone of finality; her son would find no leeway, no room to argue. “And consider yourself lucky that you’re getting away with not only abandoning your sister during your chores, but spending the night out with a stranger.” 

Levi was a little annoyed with the fact that a ten year old’s clothes fit him better than his own, but it definitely gave his limbs more freedom. Pocketing his screwdriver in his new trousers, he accepted Carla’s bundle with a nod. “You should listen to your mother,” he said, receiving a smug smile of approval from the ladies. “And besides, as I said before, I’m busy. I don’t have time to babysit a child all night long.”

Levi supposed that he may have been a little bit too harsh on the boy, whose lips pressed tightly shut and averted his eyes, shuffling back into the shadow of his mother. He turned to leave, but found himself unable to take a step further, guilt prodding his conscience. It couldn’t be helped, though. With the Angels plotting something sinister and no way of knowing what the plan was, he couldn’t afford to put more people in danger than necessary. But… This whole town was in danger, and he couldn’t just leave without repaying kindness with such harsh words, especially to a boy who’d done nothing but help him. Sighing, he pulled off the necklace he had and turned back around, holding it out to the boy despite the mother’s frown. “I want you to have this key, Eren. It’s for my, er, box. Think of it as a protection charm, and a parting gift from me.”

He didn’t give out his spare TARDIS keys to just anyone, but he wanted the boy to have it. Eren was his first friend in this regeneration, and despite the short time they’ve been together, he found himself wanting to visit the boy again. Maybe next time, under better circumstances, he could visit again and repay the family for their generous hospitality.

Eren held out his hand tentatively from behind his mother; the rebuff had hurt a little, especially after he’d caught the smug little nod of agreement from Mikasa and his mother. Sometimes he felt like they were conspiring against him, were taking too many liberties to keep him safe and protected. They were nearly as bad as the walls that kept him and his kin prisoner. He was only ten, and he was already dissatisfied with his life; he wanted to live, to experience danger and adventure, to affect change, to learn from his mistakes… and he was only ten! How would it feel at fifteen? At twenty? At thirty? He would could not tolerate such a life! No, not a life, a mere existence. He mouthed a _Thank you_ to Levi and and put the rope from which hung the key around his neck. It was a silent promise, he knew it; one to return, one to explain. Levi knew it too, he must have. 

With one last soft quirk of lips towards the hopeful boy, and a farewell nod to Eren’s mother and sister, Levi stepped out of the house and headed down the street. He didn’t look back because he never liked seeing those things. Things like, family bidding you farewell, watching him leave, waiting for him to return before he’s even really left. Invisible wishes to meet again. Levi hated those because, more often than not, those wishes never came true. Even if he wasn’t leaving for good yet, he didn’t like seeing people watch him leave like his mother had.

Levi retraced his steps back towards the forest, warily looking around the deserted streets lit only by the firelight from inside the homes and the fading crescent moon just above the wall. He had the eerie feeling of being watched, and several times he looked behind him to check if Eren had snuck out of the house to follow him, or if there were more dangerous entities lurking in the shadows. All he could see were the silhouettes of homes and altars, looking more sinister under the dim light of the crescent moon.

Levi briskly strode into the forest towards where he remembered crashing his TARDIS, worried that he’d left her alone too long. With his screwdriver, he scanned his surroundings warily, unable to shake off the feeling of being watched. There was nothing, but that didn’t reassure him at all. It was more unusual to have nothing. No squirrels, or birds, or even tigers, if this region had those. Nothing. This forest was completely barren.

He needed to get to his TARDIS quickly to do a more comprehensive scan of the region. The screwdriver was handy, but it was still only a simpler version of all the things his baby could do… As long as she wasn’t too damaged yet. Or else it was going to take time repairing her before he could do anything else. The fire probably hadn’t done much damage, but his regeneration had hit the main console pretty hard, and he wasn’t sure which side had taken the hardest hit. He quickened his pace, making a mental list of all the things he might have to fix.

Levi felt his muscles sag a bit in relief as he finally reached the spot his TARDIS had crashed, evident by the dent of soil and the broken pine branches scattered about. The smoke had ceased, and the only thing left from the fires were spots of black soot where it had burned itself down into soot. “I’m back, you glorious piece of shit,” He mumbled with a smile, pressing his screwdriver button to deactivate the invisibility shield. It didn’t deactivate. Maybe his beloved had been more damaged than he thought, and Levi decided he’d have to manually deactivate it, reaching forward to feel where the doors were.

His hand fell through the place he’d expected the outer wall of his blue box to be. A few steps in, and he still hadn’t touched the invisible wall. He waved his arms around with a frown, walking through the clearing twice. He couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t find it. “Shithead?”

Levi pulled out the Angels’ TARDIS Compass he’d found earlier for help finding his box, but the needle only kept spinning around and around aimlessly. In a single moment of dread, he felt the pit of his stomach drop and his breaths turn shallow as he found himself reaching only one possible conclusion.

His TARDIS was gone.


	2. In short...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the kind supportive comments & kudos for the first chapter!   
> Hope you enjoy this second installment!

Eren spent the day in his room, as per his mother’s _insistence_ that he needed to rest; which of course was preferable to saying that he was grounded. So during the daylight hours, he pretended to sleep, trying to process everything that he’d seen since the blue box had fallen from the sky. It seemed impossible that he hadn’t just dreamed it up, the glowing burst of raw energy, the stranger being able to walk on his broken leg as though it’d never been injured, the solemn, confused expression on Levi’s handsome face… He plunged his hand into his olive green shirt and held his palm to the center of his chest, feeling the heat of the key on a string pulse ever so slightly against his flesh as though it was calling to him. 

Carla went into Eren once darkness had fallen and the boy had failed to come to the kitchen at dinnertime, despite having called him twice for their meal. When she entered his room, she saw his lithe form sprawled under a thick blanket and heard the small huffs of familiar mouth breathing she’d grown accustomed to hearing the nights she had to sit by his bed when he’d been sick or simply had a nightmare. She left a tray on his bedside table, his favourite preserved meat and fresh buttered bread, then retreated after kissing him on the head and ruffling his hair tenderly. She lingered at the door, whispering with an endearing smile on her face, “Goodnight, Sweetheart. I love you.” Eren was a handful, but she wouldn’t trade him for anything. 

It was a few hours before Eren opened an eye tentatively to make sure he couldn’t see a light under the door to his room or his mother’s feet beyond it, strained to hear anyone walking or tip-toeing inside the home, then threw the covers back to get out of his bed quietly. He added bunched up clothing in his place and molded them to take a person-like form before throwing the blankets over again. Damn, he’d actually fallen asleep at some point, and by his estimates, it would be light again outside in three hours. He stuffed a piece of bread in his mouth, pocketed a few pieces of meat and snuck out the window. 

He fell out the window sill, into his mother’s garden with a muffled _ooph_ , then got to his feet and took off at a sprint. It was still dusky and dim outside, the stars and moon above having been concealed by the cloudy sky; it would be more difficult to find Levi in such unhelpful circumstances, but he was determined- and nobody did determined like Eren Jaeger. 

He ran past the houses nearest his home in resolute quiet and once he’d rounded the market, he’d set off towards the forest that lay on the other side of the town, as far as possible from Wall Maria, cupping his hands to his mouth, hissing and calling for Levi. As luck would have it, few people were out at this time, at least none that would want to be identified, and as such, they paid him no mind. He passed the small school, three parks, two taverns and the municipal building, turned the corner at the gaudy church only to run into a solid half wall and bounce back onto his rear. 

Levi stumbled forward, nearly dropping the TARDIS Compass in his hand. All day long he had walked around the whole town with it, trying to find a place where the needle would finally detect his frightened TARDIS. When he’d gone through every alley and forest ground twice with no results, he angrily reconfigured the compass to point him to the highest concentration of temporal disturbance energy instead. Finding the Angels was probably his best bet for finding his TARDIS. The reconfigured compass went awry a few times when he passed some gardens and parks, but it eventually led him to this church, adorned with bas reliefs and veiled statues protectively standing beside embellished columns and elaborate stained glass windows. The rest of the town seemed much too plain and dull in comparison.

“What the fuck?” Levi wasn’t happy that he’d wasted a day without finding his blue beauty, and being no closer to finding the Angels only worsened his mood. He’d finished off Carla’s bundle of food hours ago, or was it days? And he smelled like sweat and dirt again. This was why he hated getting involved in things… He really shouldn’t have chased after the Angels.  
Levi turned around, ready to give his assailant the tongue lashing of a lifetime, when he found Eren on the floor instead. It seemed that for once, something was going right. The boy was the only one who knew what Levi was looking for, the only one who could really help him.

“Eren,” Levi sighed in relief, “Watch where you’re walking, brat.”

Eren sputtered as he got up to his feet, a furious blush creeping across his cheeks as he took in the husky familiar voice, “You… watch where you’re… s-standing!” Now that he found Levi, he wasn’t sure what to say anymore; like most of his plans, this one was ill-conceived. He’d decided to find the man, but not what he would do once he had. All he knew was that he couldn’t let him leave Shiganshina. 

Though Levi had better fitting-clothes, wasn’t hobbling on a broken leg or lacked the soot-stained covered skin, he still looked a little worse for wear. “What are you doing here? I was coming to see you at your box to see… to see if…” He shuffled his feet and cast his eyes to the ground, trying to come up with something that would make him seem indispensable to the man, to make himself useful so that he would not be left behind when Levi finally decided to leave. “To see if you needed help… with anything…” 

Levi’s anger dissipated quickly at the sight of the mumbling boy shyly peeking at him through his lashes. His hand unconsciously picked at the hem of his shirt, where his TARDIS key surely hung underneath. Eren didn’t say it, but every bit of his body language told Levi that he’d been waiting to meet him again.

“Are you sure your mom’s going to be okay with that?” Levi crossed his arms, teasing. The kid definitely snuck out without permission, and probably didn’t think much about what would happen when she found out he’d come looking for him. And her being a mother, she was definitely going to find out. Mothers had strange psychic powers, after all.

Eren raised his chin defiantly and stood a little taller, “Of course she is! I’m not a _kid_!” He was the man of the house when his father was gone after all. He took care of minor injuries when people came by for treatment, even made pocket money delivering supplies to his father’s patients; not only was he not a child, he was kind of a man, wasn’t he? “So, what are we doing? Are you looking for something? What are you doing with that thing?” Eren asked excitedly pointing to the watch-looking thing he picked up off the target yesterday; he had fully expected Levi to dismiss him and send him back home the way most adults in town did. 

It was cute how excited Eren was about helping him out. In all his years as a traveler, Levi had met many people who were more than willing to help him, but not many people were as eager as Eren to stay in his company. He had his stellar personality to thank for that. A loud growl interrupted the quiet dawn, and Levi felt his ears heat up just a tiny bit.

“First of all, _kid_ , do you have anything to eat? I haven’t eaten in days.”

“Days? Didn’t my mom send you with food like, less than twenty-four hours ago? You have a crap sense of time, Levi.” Despite the cheeky snark, Eren was more than happy to oblige. He dug into his back pocket and withdrew the dried meat his mother had set for him on his bedside table and offered it to Levi. He was a little peckish himself, but didn’t mention it, was just so ecstatic to help. 

“Only twenty-four hours? Fuck, time is soooo slow, how do you live like this?” Levi groaned, grabbing the meat and splitting it in half. “You eat, too. I could hear your stomach crying.”

He checked the Compass one more time as he chewed, looking up at the church suspiciously. There was definitely something wrong here, but when he’d gone inside before, he couldn’t find anything. There were no secret entrances he could find, no suspicious winged statues, no particular object that he thought could qualify as alien technology. The needle when haywire once he was inside, so he couldn’t track anything down.

“So,” Levi started, swallowing, “This is a nice church. How long has it been here?”

Eren smiled and stuffed the food in his mouth before Levi could change his mind. He chewed twice, eager to give the raven-haired man the information he sought and spoke with his mouth full, little pieces of meat falling out as he spoke, “Mmph… A yearph or somefingk.” He reddened under the scrutinizing glare, swallowed and tried again. “A year or something. Um… from what my dad told me it was an independent commission, for three of them. One within each outcrop of each wall; Shiganshina for Wall Rose, Trost for Wall Maria and Stohesse for Wall Sina.” 

Ignoring the boy’s disgusting display of etiquette, Levi tried to make sense of the information Eren had given him. He hadn’t been able to get his hands on a reliable map, and nobody seemed to want to talk to a Survey Corps corporal. He didn’t understand how this region worked, but if his assumptions were right, the walls were to keep out the ‘titans’ everyone seemed to fear. Maybe that was a code word for something the Weeping Angels were plotting. And if it was, what was the role of the church in it?

“How did such an elaborately decorated church get constructed so quickly? Who built it?”

Levi doubted the kid knew much about the process, but he needed to figure out if the church was constructed coincidentally, or if it was a part of a more malevolent agenda. There was something definitely lurking in the shadows of the church, and he couldn’t stop feeling the prickle on the back of his neck like someone was constantly watching him.

Eren’s brow furrowed as he thought about what Levi had asked. “Hmm… I dunno who built it and I don't really remember how quickly it was built, isn't that funny?” Levi’s face remained impassive and Eren knew the man did not think it funny in the least. He chewed the inside of his cheek, his foot tapping nervously against the cobble stoned path on which they stood, wracking his brain for any helpful information. His head perked up suddenly and he pushed the older man as he was struck by an idea. “I know who _would_ know though! Come on! I'll bring you! He always has _all_ the answers!” His tan slender hand reached out and took the familiar linen shirt aggressively near the collar and pulled him in toe towards the southernmost area that flanked the river flowing through his small town.

There was almost no time for Levi to avoid the firm grip of the determined boy as he made a grab for his shirt. And in the time that he did have to avoid it, he just didn’t. The way Eren held his shirt was almost rude, but his eagerness to help was endearing. The twist of the fabric really did hurt, though.

“Let go, brat,” He brushed off the grip, “You can lead me there without dragging me like a sack of potatoes.” Eren’s hand had been incredibly warm, Levi realized as the chilly morning breeze blew through the crumpled fabric, and he found himself already missing the heat of that hand against his hearts.

“Sorry!” Eren dropped his hand right away and ran headlong down the alleyways and network of narrow streets that led to Armin’s house, his and Levi’s boots thumping rhythmically and in time against the stone. It was when he took the corner after the market that a distinctive set of footfalls faded away from his own that he turned around to see Levi doubled over, one hand on his thigh and the other pressed against the nearest brick building. Eren jogged back hesitantly and his hand hovered over the winded man’s back but then he withdrew it, thinking it might be somewhat emasculating to be comforted by a young man who was obviously able to outrun someone who had probably done his training among heroes like Erwin Smith or Keith Shadis. “Um, Levi? If you’re in the Survey Corps, how come you can’t run two kilometers without keeling over? You’re not really a corporal are you?” He immediately covered his mouth, felt his eyes go round before he winced, _dammit, his mother **was** right, he never knew when to shut up!_

If he could breathe properly, Levi probably would have retorted back with some profane words to put him back in his place. He was over five hundred years old, damn it! He’d fought more battles than this boy had taken breaths in his entire childhood! But he was still adjusting to his new body, still trying to catch up to the amount of muscles he had. Just another hour or so, and his regeneration would have completed. He’d gained muscles, but his insides were still rearranging to fit the new look.

“Shut up,” Levi panted out instead, relying more heavily on the wall than his own legs to hold him up, “I’m still… Shit… New body… Not young anymore…” He took several slow and deep breaths, willing his two hearts to stop exerting themselves too much, before looking back up at the waiting boy. “What the fuck is a Survey Corps, anyways?”

Eren’s grin widened and he pointed his finger at Levi in triumph, “Aha! I knew you were a big fat phony! Wait… wait… did you say _New body?_ And what does _Not young… anymore?_ even mean? Look at you, you can’t be over seventeen or eighteen years? That’s still young, unless of course you were _actually_ part of the Survey Corps…” Eren closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead; he was so confused. What was Levi on about? And how could he not know what the Survey Corps was, unless... “Where are you really from? Who are you really?” 

“Don’t hurt yourself there,” Levi sighed, watching the gears painfully cranking to their limits in Eren’s head. The boy had taken enough time confusing himself for Levi to regain his breath, thankfully. Pushing himself off the wall, he prompted the boy forward, slowly walking their way to wherever they were headed.

“I’m not, er, ordinary,” He began after a few moments, unsure how to go about explaining to a ten year old human the complexities of the universe and his life in a few simple sentences. There was no better way than the truth, he decided, when Eren’s eyes seemed only more confused.

“I’m a five hundred and twenty four year old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey two hundred and fifty light-years away from Earth, with a traveling partner called the Time And Relative Dimension In Space, or TARDIS for short, which is the blue police box you saw before, and I was following the temporal signals of the Weeping Angels, which led me to this town, and now I’m trying to figure out what their plans are before they fuck up the universe because that’s what I do. So in short, I’m not human.”

Eren stopped abruptly, inclined his head to look Levi in the face, then put a hand to his forehead. No temperature, just a little dewy from their run… “Do you even hear yourself when you talk? Literally the only thing I understood from that whole spiel as it relates to you was the word “short”...” 

It was a low blow, Eren knew that the moment it had come out of his mouth, but he needed time to process things. How was it possible for someone to be over five hundred years old but to look like a teenager. And he’d never heard of a planet called Galli… Galif… Freyagal… What was a Weeping Angel? No way they were any worse than the titans! He picked up the pace, repeating the words over and over to himself, trying to commit them to memory; he would need to ask Armin about all these things, or to at least have him look them up in a book or something. “We’re almost there, just a couple more streets.” 

“‘Sh-short’?” Levi belatedly spluttered, thoroughly offended and shocked into silence for a moment. He, a Time Lord with powers and technology beyond the imagination of a mere human, summed up to be just _‘short’_??? “I tell you I’m an ancient time traveler from the stars, and all you got from that was I’m fucking short?” Oh, he hated this regeneration look. Why the fuck did he have to be so vertically challenged? The kid was ten, and he had no trouble reaching up to touch his forehead! Fuck, that was almost more offensive than the kid just _talking_ about his height. And why was his hand so damn warm?

Eren didn’t seem to have heard him, mumbling to himself as he briskly led the way with his surprisingly long strides, and Levi quickened his pace to keep up, once again peeved at the difference of their physiques. The sun was lighting up the rooftops by the time they slowed to a stop in front of a home similarly designed as Eren’s place. It was really only the sound of the river a short distance away that told Levi that it was a different house, or else he’d have been convinced otherwise. In fact, Eren brazenly walked straight in like it _was_ his own home.

Eren strode into the kitchen, tossing an apple to Levi as he went by a large bowl filled with them, took one for himself and bit into it ravenously. He went up the rickety, steep wooden steps and threw open the door at the end of the hall, letting it bang noisily against the wall. “Ohmigoshwhatisthat!” a small form shrieked shooting upright in the bed under a mass of blankets. Eren roared in delighted amusement with tears accumulating in the corner of his eyes as he reached a hand out and tugged on the sheet to reveal a small child with a blonde mass of tangled hair snarls that looked suspiciously like a rat’s nest. This never got old!

“Eren! I told you to stop that! I almost peed my bed… again!” Armin said with a groggy little voice as he lay back down and turned over, bringing the sheets up to his face as he settled in. “What do you want this time? Did you have another nightmare?” He slid over, pressing his slight body against the wall and lifted the blanket behind him, “Come on then,” he yawned, “climb in… your stuffed rabbit is on the chair in the corner.” 

Eren faltered and stumbled over his words as they tumbled out of his mouth incoherently, “Wha-... No stuffed… too old for nightma-... ugh Armin!” He swallowed a fist-sized lump and rubbed the back of his neck with a shaky hand, feeling the heat pool there as he turned dubiously to face Levi. “It’s not true, I swear.” 

“Don’t swear, your mom won’t like that, Eren,” Armin piped up still facing the wall. Of course none of it was true, which was why it was so difficult to repress the laughter that was creeping its way to the surface; but Eren deserved it, bringing a stranger into his house like that and scaring the living daylights out of him. “The sun’s barely up… what do you want? I was up late reading last night and I”m tired,” he whined in a muffle as he put his pillow over his head.

Sure enough, Eren could make out small piles of books and papers under the covers on Armin’s bed, a candle in a small bronze holder next to the bed had burned until all that was left was the wick floating in the cooled wax, a tiny tip sticking up just enough for it to be unsuccessfully relit at another time. He took a bite of his apple, picked up his friend’s pillow and gave him a playful whack over the head with it. “I… _we_ have questions for you, get up…” 

Levi quietly waited until the blond rat’s nest boy rolled his eyes and excused himself to wash up first before turning to look at Eren incredulously. 

“You’re seriously going to ask another kid for help?” He deadpanned, shining his own apple as he took a ravenous bite and sniffed the air to make sure that the blond boy really had not pissed in his bed. He was already second-guessing his decision to let Eren “help” him out; he definitely didn’t need another kid to babysit. If it was Eren’s friend, he was most undoubtedly going to be another handful. Not to mention, the kid was probably also too young to provide him with the information he needed. He needed a damn reliable human adult here, Not two kids and a Time Lord without a TARDIS!

“I need real information here, kid, this isn’t some silly game you can just play with your friends. There are lives at stake here, yours and mine and everyone in this town, dangerous things I need to find and apprehend, and unless your friend here is a genius, he can’t help me.”

Eren bounced onto the bed and was joined by Armin who had heard the tail end of their conversation. The two boys looked at each other and grinned broadly. “You're in luck, Levi… Armin here is a certifiable!” he said pushing into his friend’s shoulder, his green eyes gleaming with pride. Finally, he could be of help to the “non-human”.

“Shh… Gramps is still sleeping, Eren,” he admonished the loud, excitable boy in a hushed tone then turned his attention to the man who leaned against the doorframe, “What kind of information are you looking for?”

The two boys stared at him defiantly in utter confidence, as though daring him to belittle them once more for being children. Levi knew a thing or two about being looked down on. He called himself a time lord, but even his life wasn’t all nice and easy. When his TARDIS had chosen him, the Prydonian High Lords had refused to grant her to him, all because he was a Dromeian. A grand device such as that was wasted on an insignificant contributor to all of space and time like him. No intellect, no cunning, no talent to invest in, they said. Every time ship was necessary to fight the Great Time War, and he simply wasn’t worthy of one. So he’d stolen it.

Levi sighed, feeling just a little defeated. The boys deserved a chance, at least, and a chance was really all anyone ever needed. They reminded him of himself, daring the shitty High Lords to call him worthless again as he surged through civilization after civilization, fighting wars and saving lives. Eren’s grin widened in victory as Levi shrugged and spoke to the blond boy.

“I need information on the commissioned churches that had been built in this town. I’m, uh, investigating suspicious things, and anything you can think of that was unusual would be helpful. And a map of your region.”

“Ha!” Armin exclaimed jumping off the bed again, crossing the room in four long strides to fling open his closet and unfold a map that was partially pinned to the back of his door. “So I’m not the only one wondering about that…” He turned towards Eren, who had sprawled out on his bed, arms behind his head, staring at the ceiling like he’d heard this sermon a million times, (which in his defense he probably had), and the man who approached the map cautiously, squinting as he took in the details. 

“So there are three of these churches,” he began only to be interrupted by Eren. 

“I told him that part already, get to the part about how it was built…” 

Armin clicked his tongue at the interruption but carried on as though nothing had happened; Eren making a nuisance of himself while he spoke was nothing new. “So they were built about two months ago, in under a month, all three of them apparently; I mean, I can’t be sure, I’ve never been to Trost or Stohesse, but that’s what some of the Military Police guys have been saying, and they’ve been all over the place.” He untucked the pen that he had hidden behind his ear after he’d washed up and gotten dressed and popped off the lid, “I’m not sure where you’re from, but things getting built in under a month here is just about as impossible as Eren staying out of trouble. What makes it even more of a mystery is the fact that the structures were only worked on at night. I stopped by every day on my way to school to track the progress, and each _day_ , I never saw a single soul working on it, even though the advancements on its construction was evident. The other vexing detail is how they managed to work at night with next to no light? How did people move the massive boulders and rocks without being seen?” 

That was definitely the Weeping Angels at work, Levi thought as he finished up his apple. They were working at night when nobody was outside to watch them, or unable to see them even if they did. And considering how powerful they were when they weren’t paralyzed, there would have been almost no problem building such an elaborately decorated building in no time at all. The question was why, though.

The little blond’s pulsed increased and his voice went up an octave in his excitement, completely unused to having such a captive audience, “And that’s just the construction itself; look at where they were built,” he said tapping the pen against the three areas. “Before there were churches here…”

“They were cemeteries!” Eren piped up sitting bolt upright on his friend’s bed then joining Armin and Levi at the closet door. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that Arm! Remember we were talking about how weird it was that nobody seemed to care that whoever was building the churches was disturbing the dead?” Finally! He could offer his own theories and ideas to Levi as well. 

“How do you even forget about that, Eren?” Armin asked incredulously. “A hundred years ago, these lands were designated as final resting places for the dead because the landmasses were directly aligned with where the first sun’s rays of the day hit. Church leaders had said that this made the area sacred.” He dropped to his knees and pulled out two books, handing them over to the stranger and nodding towards the bed. He joined them, and opened the first book where it had been clearly marked off with a folding of the page. 

“Sorry, Eren never mentioned your name…”

“It’s Levi,” Eren butt in again, trying to make sure he wasn’t forgotten in the exchange. 

Levi put his hand into his pocket, ready to pull out his psychic paper and show Armin his fake identification. The blond boy was obviously nothing like Eren, more intellect than impulse, observant of everything the world surrounded him with. Even if Levi told him that he was part of the Survey Corps, Armin was going to see through his lies soon enough. And, if he was being completely honest, he didn’t want to lie to the kids. They deserved more than obvious lies meant to placate them and brush them off.

“I’m new in town,” He supplied instead. 

Armin nodded, uncaring what the man’s name was; he was on a roll right now and didn’t want to have to mince his words in trying to get his attention when a simple name could suffice. “Levi, this is an Atlas, do you know what an Atlas is?” 

“Of course, Gerardus and I were prison buddies,” Levi snorted, remembering the cartographer whose subjects of conversation only ever revolved around the development of his book on the history description of the universe. He was like Armin, in many ways, a hoarder of books and information, though that had been why he was imprisoned in the first place. Eren seemed to perk up at the mention of him having gone to prison once, but Armin, barely listening for a response, continued.

“I only ask because here in Shiganshina, an Atlas such as this is considered contraband, as are most of those books,” he said waving a hand airily towards the closet and the mess at the foot of the bed. “My gramps managed to find these books for me because I’ve read everything that has been issued by the King already,” he offered in explanation for the time being, “and based on our flora and fauna and the way the seasons change, I’ve deduced that we’re about here,” he said pointing at a page that was entitled “World Map”. “Of course I could be wrong…”

Eren rolled his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh, garnering both Armin and Levi’s attention. The false modesty, he knew, was a show for Levi’s benefit; Armin didn’t enjoy making people feel intellectually inferior, but it was a natural byproduct of being around him for any length of time. His own feelings were seldom ever hurt because they had a firm friendship built on mutual, unwavering loyalty. “But you’re never wrong…” Eren smiled cheekily, searching for any traces of interest on Levi’s face. 

“There was that one time that…” 

“Just get on with it,” Levi urged, trying to keep the conversation on track. Armin was much smarter than he had expected him to be, a complete genius in hiding, and he was providing him more information than all the adults in this town did yesterday.

“Anyhow, if you look at these lines that run North to South, Meridians we call them, this line here goes right through our town. From what I know of Stohesse and Trost, it runs through them too. This line is essentially the first point past the day, which means, it’s here that we delineate the passage of time, from one day to another. I know that seems inconsequential, except that there’s a lot of weird things surrounding time that I’ve observed since the churches were built. First, watches don’t work inside the churches. They just stop.” He let that sink in for a moment, disappointed by Levi’s impassive face; clearly the man was not easily impressed. He pressed on… “Even weirder is that once you’re _inside_ the church, you lose all sense of time.” 

“What do you mean, lose sense of time?” Levi did notice his modified temporal disturbance locator compass did go haywire when he went in the church, but he hadn’t noticed any actual disturbance.

“Gramps went to a service two Sundays ago, and told me to come meet him an hour later so that would could go get a bite to eat afterwards. I waited six hours outside the church for him. When he came out, he didn't apologize for being late, do you know why?”

“Why?” Levi asked, when Armin grinned and refused to answer to just the raising of an eyebrow. The boy was definitely enjoying being able to show off what he knew, his cheeks blushing pink with excitement. 

“Because he didn’t realize he was late! The sun had even set! He went in prior to dinner when it was still light outside and came out in the dark. He didn’t even question it!” Armin said shifting from foot to foot, unable to stay still as he related his findings, his voice had practically become breathless at this point. “Aaaand I did the same thing last Sunday…” 

“Wait? You used me?” Eren said feigning hurt and insult as he dramatically grabbed the shirt under where his heart beat, “Is that all I am to you, Arm? A test subject for your experiments?” 

“You knew what this was!” Armin answered, nodding sheepishly as he grinned from ear to ear. “As expected, my watch stopped working once I stepped inside, but I know for a fact that I was in there for eight hours because I’d checked the time when I left home and then rushed back as soon as I left; I took off some minutes for travel time of course... Eren you said you left after two hours, right?” His friend nodded, confirming what he’d asked, then Armin frowned, coming to an end of his observations for Levi and his voice dropped between them, as though he were ashamed to admit the following words, “I don’t even know what I did while I was in there. All I know is that when I came out, I was exhausted, drained.” 

That was definitely troubling. It was one thing for people to go in and come out much later than they thought, losing track of time. If that were the case, Levi would have suspected that the Angels were somehow transporting them through small amounts of time, but for them to go in and come out not remembering anything? There was definitely something more at work than just the usual time leaps. Levi suspected that the church was being used as a way to harness time energy, given the location, but nothing about the church gave him any more clues to how that was happening and what it was for. The perception filter on the building was strong.

“Do you remember if you had any special wounds or marks on yourself when you left the church?”

Armin’s forehead wrinkled when he frowned, trying to recall if there had been anything. “Strange you should say that because after I went back home, I went to Eren’s house, I wanted him to help look me over in case I’d miss something or I wouldn’t be able to see my back or something… So when I got to Eren’s house, I just stripped to my underwear in the kitchen, remember Eren?” He pursed his lips trying to keep from laughing as the heat rose to his face, “Your mom was so upset!” 

Eren’s breath hitched at the mention of his mother. “Damn it! I lost track of time! She’ll be up by now!” He didn’t bother saying goodbye to Armin or Levi as he barrelled out of the room, crashing into the wall opposite the door, unable to make the turn fast enough. He barely remembered running down the stairs, almost certain his feet must have touched only three steps out of the possible ten and he took off at a sprint down the streets of Shiganshina. 

His mother was positively going to murder him if she caught him; this would be the third time he’d been caught sneaking out in the past month to go to Armin’s and she’d warned him, had made it crystal clear that if it happened again, he would be homeschooled and would be forbidden from seeing his friend. It made no sense, if one of them should be kept from the other, it was Armin; he was the _good_ influence! 

He rounded the corner and made out their little cottage. He could see nobody standing in front of the windows in the kitchen or in the vegetable patch or the butterfly garden or with their hands firmly on their apron-clad hips at the front door- these were glorious signs, no doubt sent from the gods! He leaped across the street and threw himself onto the ground and rolled stealthily to the short dry stone wall, where he did a military crawl some thirty feet to where he guessed his bedroom window would be located. He was right; he’d had the practice after all. He climbed furtively over the wall and caught his breath in the bushes before hauling himself over the windowsill with an oof to find himself sprawled on his tummy before a pair of dark-soled leather slippers, one of them tapping a mad tattoo against the wooden floor. 

“M-m-mom… I can explain…” Eren stuttered, contemplating getting to his feet, but felt it was probably wise to stay on his knees as a sign of deepest contrition. He waited for her to explode, to start screaming and cursing up a storm, to use his three names in quick succession and then to dish out a severe punishment followed by the threat of homeschool. But she said nothing. He was terrified. Her silence was worse than anything she could have said. 

He didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth and closed it again, repeated the action four or five times before he watched her walk around him to his bedside table and pick up the dishes she’d left there for him the previous night. “You disappoint me, Eren,” was all she said and she made for the door and shut the it quietly behind her, leaving him to his own guilty conscience. 

Levi, in the meanwhile, had stared at the open door with his mouth hanging open, taken aback by the whirlwind that was Eren. There had been no time to react to anything the boy said before he went slamming doors open and running back into the streets, completely panicked. He considered going after him, but he suspected that his mother would not approve of seeing Eren with him once again. He was long gone by the time Levi regained his composure, anyways, and would probably not be able to catch up to the single-minded boy. Armin didn’t seem all that surprised, anyways, laughing silently behind his hand.

Sighing in resignation, he went to close the doors again, peering outside for signs that Eren really was gone. The only thing vaguely human shaped was the altar figure of the Virgin Mary across the street, whose veiled head suspiciously seemed tilted in his direction… But it was probably a trick of the morning sunlight casting odd shadows, Levi decided, shutting the doors tightly.. At least Eren wasn’t going to be interrupting every now and then, Levi thought.

“Where were we again?” 

Armin’s eyes followed Levi’s as they had trailed out the window and across the street at the Virgin statue that stood piously, head inclined as though considering its existence. “Um, Levi?” he swallowed and shifted uncomfortably where he sat, “D-Did you notice that statue on your way over? Because it wasn't there when I went to bed last night…”

He was right, Levi realized, feeling the air around him chill as everything seemed to go still. He hadn’t seen it when he was entering Armin’s house just half an hour ago too, so it was something that definitely had moved… But before he could gather his thoughts again, a loud and deafening sound split through the momentary silence. Armin, jumping at the noise, ran out of the house immediately.

“What was that?” He asked loudly, stumbling out into the street to look around. His brain was processing so many subtle details at once he thought it would short circuit. He had a feeling he _knew_ what it was, he just desperately wanted Levi to say it was something else, anything else! 

Levi rushed out after him, his hearts thudding wildly as his head began to piece together all the signs he’d seen around town. There was a huge cloud of sandy smoke unfurling in the distance, and people were pouring out of their homes, yelling and screaming in a panic as they began to run away from the commotion. A dark mass of shadows seemed to be disentangling itself from behind the smoke, and just as Levi squinted his eyes to get a better look, he felt a small hand grab the hem of his shirt and yank. 

“L-Levi, look… The statue…”

Levi whirled around, his breath hitching in his throat and every single hair follicle stood at attention at the sight of the stone Virgin Mary that had pulled back her veil, pointed teeth displayed in a sinister smile, baring a pair of extended wings behind her open arms.


	3. Emergency Unpreparedness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to our little following, for the encouraging comments- they mean so much to us :) We hope you enjoy the next installment!

“Don’t blink,” Levi all but whispered, slowly pulling the blond boy back towards the house. He kept his eyes trained on the Weeping Angel, clearly watching them from its pedestal above the crowd. It couldn’t move yet, but with all this chaos and that suspicious explosion, it wasn’t going to be difficult for the Angel to find an opportunity. “Don’t even look away from the Angel. When we reach the door, you’re going to run inside and get your family out, okay? Take them as far away from the town as you can. And if you see any more statues along the way, don’t let them out of your sight as long as possible.”

The back of his heel hit the ledge of the doorway, and Levi stopped, nudged Armin backwards. There was no time. “Go get them out. I’ll be here until you leave.”

Armin turned on his heel and ran to fetch his Gramps without so much saying another word to Levi; something in the man’s voice, the desperation, slight panic and commanding tone were enough for the young boy to take him seriously. 

He found his guardian in the kitchen throwing rations into a rucksack, possessed by the same frantic look Levi had moments ago. Armin’s composure slipped the tiniest bit and he was gripped by a sudden and incapacitating fear. He grasped the table white knuckled and took quick, shallow breaths, his eyes widening to dart around the surroundings, mentally cataloguing the screams easily heard from outside, the ground shaking beneath his feet and the rubble flying by his window.

Titans. The walls had let them all down. Whatever Levi was worried about, there's no way it could compare to the impending threat that had him being forcibly dragged out of his home with little to no regard to the small form of the raven-haired man keeping a lookout near his backyard.

From his periphery, Levi watched Armin and his grandfather quickly join the rest of the townspeople spilling into the streets and heading towards the huge gate at the other end, before slipping into the crowd himself to hurry over to the site of damage. It was incredibly close to where he remembered Eren’s home being, and with the Angels roaming around as well, it was too dangerous. The Angel in front of Armin’s home probably wouldn’t be moving anytime soon, given the size of the panicked crowd passing through, but Levi still kept a wary eye on it until he turned a corner, just in case. 

He broke into a sprint, feeling his muscles burn, flex and push him forward strongly and swiftly. His regeneration energy had finally completed resettling into the new body, and he was at long last feeling the full capacity of his strength. Levi was small, but he now felt the full advantage of his height as he agilely weaved in and out of the chaotic jumble of people. The ground continued to tremble with the repercussions of whatever was happening at a distance, and Levi propelled himself harder forward, pulling out his screwdriver to keep at the ready in his hand. 

The number of people running through the streets quickly dwindled to a scattered few as he got closer to the site of destruction. Houses were completely flattened, there were masses of bodies strewn about, mangled and torn apart. Some survivors were sobbing as the covered their dead parents with their cloaks, before gathering their meager belongings to run to safety. Others were alive, but just barely, trying to pull themselves out of their own pool of blood. Clenching his fists, Levi ran faster past them. The only way he could help them all was to put an end to the destruction, so he couldn’t stop now. Not yet.

Levi had almost reached Eren’s home when he finally saw it and nearly tripped over his own feet in surprise; there were the Titanthropes, who were supposed to be extinct, roaming just a few streets down, kicking apart buildings and pulling people out of them. He watched in horror as one of the bulkier ones lifted a screaming man to its mouth and sank its teeth into him, tearing and ripping him apart. Atop some of the taller buildings a small distance away, were the Angels, wings outstretched and lips curved into malevolent grins, their stony skin glowing as they absorbed the life energy out of the dying human. Feeling his hands tremble with rage as his fists alternated between clenching and going rigid, he realized that this had been their plan all along : the mass slaughter of an entire population by their own prehistoric ancestors, to suck up all the potential life energy spilling out from it.

There was nothing Levi could do to save the man, so he continued on his way down the street, taking advantage of the moments the Angels were distracted to save those he still could. He could see Eren’s home, or what was left of it now, and he instinctively scanned the rubble with his screwdriver for any sign of life, hoping against hope that for once today, _something_ would go right.

***

No amount of Titan Preparedness Drills at school could have ever prepared Eren for the real deal. Those conditioning exercises had only ever instructed them to get to the safety of their basements where they should have stored a year’s worth of rations and wait for help to find them. They’d never told them what to do if a house was pelted with rubble from the outer wall and collapsed while they were still inside.

It was Eren’s hand that had first made it to surface, clawing away at the debris to make a hole large enough for his head and torso to fit through. He squished and squeezed himself against the opening, feeling the sharpened edges of the roof tiles tear through his signature green shirt and his soft tanned flesh as he pulled himself up. The moment he got out of the wreckage, he stumbled to the ground and onto his knees, coughing and wheezing, the giant heap of a home before him. “M-m-mom? Mikasa?” he whined desperately. Where had his mother and sister been when their house had been struck? He fisted his hair, great big clumps of it as he tried to focus. _Focus!_ he willed his brain. Okay… his mother had only walked out of his room, right? He groaned, putting a bloodied hand to his forehead, brutally worried his bottom lip between his teeth and repressed the sobs that threatened to take over logical thought. What if the last words he ever got to hear from his mother were that he was a disappointment? 

“Mom!!! Mikasa!!! Please! Where are you?” His voice was strained and broke on every other syllable as he stumbled around the house’s periphery, trying to look for any sign of either woman.

***

The sudden blast had Mikasa jumping back in surprise. She’d been so preoccupied with her anger over Eren’s disappearance once more, that on her way back from scouring the neighborhood, she didn’t notice the shadows looming over the walls until they broke through. Huge boulders went flying past her, instantly crushing homes and the families inside before they could protect themselves. She knew it was the Titans before she even saw them.

Mikasa rushed back to their little house quickly; Carla was still at home, and they were so close to the wall. She prayed that the debris would have miraculously bypassed it, that her adoptive mother was okay, and that Eren was safe somewhere away. But her prayers had come too late, she realized, as she finally reached the place her home had been. She choked upon seeing it, her eyes prickling with tears.

“C-Car…” She couldn’t even call out, so afraid of what she’d hear, or rather, what she wouldn’t hear. Her steps faltered as she pushed herself forward, praying for a smaller miracle, that maybe the debris had still missed Carla somehow.

From near the back, a shadow seemed to move from behind the cloud of dust, and Mikasa gasped, immediately recognizing the familiar mess of hair, climbing out from under a flat piece of rubble that had once been a part of the wall or a ceiling.

“Eren!” She cried, stumbling over loose pieces of their home in order to reach him. He was safe, at least, and that gave her hope.

“Mikasa! Help me find Mom! I think she was in the kitchen when everything… when everything…” He sobbed, not able to think straight. All he could focus on was finding his mother; his ten-year-old mind wasn’t mature enough to grasp the more frightening reality of what the actual threat was. He limped over the rubble, felt the blood run down his leg where some kind of shrapnel had pierced it, but it was unimportant. “Over here!” he shouted in a panic though his sister was only a few feet away. “The kitchen would be around here… look,” he cleared some of the debris to reveal a grossly dented pot. He swallowed a lump that had lodged itself in his throat; if this pot, sturdy and strong, one that had taken a beating from him as a child playing music on it and had been put to a fire almost on a daily basis hadn’t fared any better, how was his mother’s soft flesh supposed to…

“You’re bleeding!” Mikasa all but screeched when his leg came into sight. There was so much blood soaking his pants, and there was something that seemed to be a wooden stake jutting out from his thigh. Her brother barely acknowledged her, frantically pushing away loose rubble in front of him. She was terrified, both for Eren’s injuries and for the reason he was ignoring those injuries. The ground shook once more with the tremors from another deadly titan attack, and Mikasa screamed, jumping forward to reach her brother. He was reckless, but she never doubted that he would keep her safe.

Mikasa helped Eren remove large chunks of their wall off of a larger one underneath, keeping her eyes away from the injury on his leg. They both knew it was better to keep it in than out, as long as they weren’t able to get proper medical attention, but the sight of it still made her insides churn uneasily.

“...-en? Eren?”

“Mom!” Eren cried, falling to the ground. He immediately scrambled to dig a small opening under the huge wall they’d been unearthing with single-minded ferocity  
and she desperately dug with him, her breaths hitching with sobs. She felt her heart leaping for joy, hearing Carla’s voice again, strained but still alive. When the hole got large enough to let some light in, Mikasa saw Carla underneath the fallen wall, looking up at them with tear stained cheeks and a pained smile.

Whatever adrenaline Carla had stored up until that point bled out of her the moment she saw her children were alive, not well by the looks of it, but still alive. “You need to go, now!” she cried weakly, pushing her son’s desperate hands away from herself. They didn’t have time to free her, couldn’t they feel the trembling of the ground? 

“Mom… Stop! We’ll get you out!” Eren wailed through the steady stream of tears as his injured leg faltered and buckled under his weight. “Help! Someone help us, please!” His voice kept breaking and wasn’t loud enough, there was no way anyone was going to hear his call for help, not with all the screaming and crying in the area, not with the sound of groaning and crumbling from nearby homes and certainly not from the heavy thumps that sounded nearer and nearer with every heartbeat the banged against his ribs. “Mikasa, lift that beam, I’m going to pull her out,” he instructed desperately through gritted teeth; he thought the pressure his jaws were exerting would shatter them for sure.

“Mikasa, don’t… take Eren and go… Please!” Carla begged her daughter, a hiccup of a sob escaping her lips, blood oozing from the side of her mouth and nose. “My legs are crushed, Eren… I won’t be able to run even if you manage to get me out…” It was a blatant lie, but she needed him to leave. The billowy smoke that had ensued as a result of so much unsettled dust from buildings collapsing was starting to thin, and she could make out the sharper details of what had only been a shadow moments ago. “Please, you have to go!” 

Eren gripped her hands in his own, failing to hold on as sweat and blood mingled, making them too slippery to even hold on. “Oh Maria, I want to Mom… I want to go real bad… but we’re not leaving y-”

“Watch out!” Levi frantically yelled, leaping over demolished remnants of stone walls as the ground shook again. One of the Titanthropes, a particularly hideous and gigantic one, was peering over another part of the town’s walls, grinning maniacally at the two children sitting on top of the pile of stones in plain view as it lifted a fist. It was still a bit far, but considering its size, Levi didn’t think it would take long for the giant to reach them. A quick glance around showed him that there were several Weeping Angels waiting already, standing far away from the Titan’s attack radius, watching. They knew the kids were next.

With his muscles running on pure adrenaline, Levi made the final leap up the pile of rocks to where the two children were, crying as they recognized him. Grabbing Eren and Mikasa’s arms, he tugged hard, pulling them back. “Let’s go!”

“No!” Eren broke down howling defiantly as he was yanked forward, causing him to stumble forward onto his knees. He found himself, a human tug-of-war between Levi, who was much stronger than he appeared, and his mother, whose hand he refused to let go despite the fact that he had felt her fingers slacken in his grip. “No! We need to get her out. Please Levi! Help her!” Eren begged on his knees crying out the words; he’d never wanted something so badly in his life than at this very moment. “I’ll… I’ll do anything! I’ll clean your box… I’ll… I’ll give you all my clothes… I’ll leave you alone! I won’t follow you around anymore, you won’t ever have to see my stupid face ever again- please!” 

“Please help her,” Mikasa cried as well, clutching tightly at Levi’s sleeve and pulling him back towards where Carla was. If anyone could help her, it was this magic man. He glowed and had powers to heal his leg instantly, so he was definitely going to be able to help her. He _had_ to help her. She desperately wanted to believe he could save them. “Please, we’ll give you anything, just get her out-”

A loud boom interrupted their desperate pleas, and Levi looked up at the Titanthrope again. He had only a few moments to wrap the children in his arms and shield them with his back as the gigantic fist slammed through the wall, flinging another deadly shower of stones onto the houses near it. His back was bombarded with stones slamming painfully onto him, but he let out no more than a grunt of pain as the children screamed underneath him. The larger boulders had missed them thankfully.

As the tremors subsided once more, Levi looked back up. Dust was all over the place again, and for now, it gave them cover. Eren had still refused to let go of his mother’s hand, and Mikasa also joined in clutching it with him. If anytime was a good time to get their mother out, it was now… But as the dust cleared a little more, Levi saw that it was going to be near impossible. The huge quake had crumpled the few wall beams that had been left standing, and they had fallen on top of the wall fragment on their mother.

“Shit,” Levi muttered, his mind whirring with panic. He had to get these children to safety, he had to pull them away from here. He couldn’t move the beams and the wall without any machinery, and there was only so much his screwdriver could do. A quick scan underneath the wall piece told him that the mother’s legs were completely jammed under the rocks, definitely broken and unmovable. He couldn’t just pull her out without moving it first, and his physical body, as strong as it was, could not just lift the wall, either. If he had his Sonic Blaster, he could just disintegrate these pieces, but it was in his TARDIS. And the Disintegrator function on his screwdriver wasn’t made for larger objects so it was going to take time, and that wasn’t something they had.

He still tried, though. He pointed the blue tip onto the topmost beam first, switching it to the highest disintegration frequency he could reach, and whirred at it. It took a few long seconds, but pretty soon, the particles making up the beam began to vibrate wildly, and in another few seconds, it popped into a mass of dusty flecks scattering onto the ground. If that giant was slow enough, he might make it in time, he hoped. The ground rumbled once more, and Levi focused his screwdriver to the next beam.

“Keep an eye on the Titanthrope, Eren, and tell me when it gets too close. And you, girl, stare at the Angel statues, okay? No questions, just do as I tell you.”

The second beam was much thicker than the first, and it look longer to disintegrate it. As he aimed the point at the third beam, ignoring the sound of houses being crushed nearby, he peeked down under the flat rubble to see how Eren’s mother was faring. Levi almost wished he hadn’t looked, as he came face to face with an all too familiar expression, the same heartbreaking one his own mother had on the day he’d run away from Gallifrey.

If Carla had had any chance of making it out before, she knew it had come and gone. She was sure her legs had not been broken by the collapse of the wall but had most likely been severed. The only blessing had been her back getting crushed in the process rendering anything below the waist numb and paralyzed. Her vision blurred, black spots taking precedence over the sight of her sobbing loved ones. She coughed up blood onto the stones before her, spraying both her children’s hands as they clung to her. “Go…” she croaked pitifully, barely able to muster the energy to shed tears, or to tell them she loved them; definitely unable to make amends with her son to tell him that he wasn't a disappointment, and that pained her more than anything else. Her head drooped, and with the last of her strength, she feebly squeezed their hands and gave the stranger Eren had brought home a fierce determined glare, communicating that she was leaving them in his care.

Eren had not followed Levi’s instructions, had not kept his eyes on the oncoming Titan. How could he when all he could see was the life draining from his mother’s face, when all he could feel was the palpable stiffening and cooling of her flesh in his hand? “Nooooo! Mom!” He screamed himself raw, felt his throat tear and his ears pop as a result. He didn't care. Let the stupid Titan come! Still refusing to let go of his mother’s hand, he picked up nearby debris and started uselessly pelting the giant with it. “Get someone else! There are plenty of other d-dead for you!”

Mikasa was frozen, trembling as the drops of blood streaked down her fingers. She had her mother’s last breath of life on her hands, striping her fingers a dark red. All sight and sound seemed to go dark as she turned to the man she had wholeheartedly poured her faith into just moments before. He tried, she knew, he tried his best to help her mother out… But he should have tried harder.

“I hate you,” She spat with a trembling voice, punching the man wildly anywhere she could reach. His stomach, his arms, his legs, it didn’t matter where her fists and legs landed, she attacked him mercilessly.

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!!!” She screamed. If it wasn’t for him, things would have been different. If he hadn’t arrived, Eren would not have snuck out in the middle of the night. Carla wouldn’t have had to panic so early in the morning. They could have gone to the market square like they’d planned. They wouldn’t have been home when the titans destroyed their home. She could have lived. Or at least, they could have died with her.

Levi numbly watched the Titanthrope grin as it approached them. Just a few large strides away, he saw. He had to pull these kids away, to safety. Their mother depended on him to do that, just like his own mother had begged him to keep living five hundred years ago. But he knew that feeling so well, to watch his own mother die before his eyes, to wish he could die with her. Was it crueler to force them to keep living? Was it mercy to leave them here, to stay with their mother til the very end?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Comments & Kudos are always welcomed!


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